Antares and M4 Cluster

CCD vs Film? Lots of time vs no patience? Alright, this is your place to discuss all the astrophotography what's and what's not. You can discuss about techniques, accessories, cameras, whatever....just make sure you also post some nice photos here too!
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celeron787
Posts: 113
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2020 2:30 pm

Antares and M4 Cluster

Post by celeron787 »

Short session last night which went surprisingly well. Only managed about 40mins integration, not enough to bring out the yellow antares nebula.
But focus of the image is the antares star and M4 cluster.

Antares is a red supergiant star shining boldly in the Scorpius constellation. Antares is also known as the “Heart of the Scorpion”.

M4 globular cluster is located only 1.3 degrees west of Antares. It is the closest globular cluster to Earth. Because of its apparent magnitude of 5.9 and proximity to Antares, one of the brightest stars in the night sky, M4 is relatively easy to find with a small telescope. The cluster is best spotted in July.

Annotated: https://nova.astrometry.net/annotated_full/5453271

Sony A6400
William Optics RedCat 51 Petzval APO
Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer
Star Adventurer Tripod

Singapore, Bortle 8
ISO400
Light Frames - 80 x 30secs (manually dithered in RA and DEC)
Dark Frames - 30 x 30secs
Flat Frames - 35
Bias Frames - 50

Deep Sky Stacker
StarTools - 50% bin, Autodev, Crop, Wipe, Super Structure, Decon, Contrast, Color, Super Structure, Denoise


ImageAntares and M4 Cluster by Yun Chong Lim, on Flickr
hhzhang
Posts: 730
Joined: Sun May 10, 2020 4:11 pm
Favourite scope: 115mm APO

Re: Antares and M4 Cluster

Post by hhzhang »

Very sharp corner to corner!

Actually last night the moon was a bit bright and only about 60deg from Antares.
celeron787
Posts: 113
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2020 2:30 pm

Re: Antares and M4 Cluster

Post by celeron787 »

hhzhang wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 10:10 am Very sharp corner to corner!

Actually last night the moon was a bit bright and only about 60deg from Antares.
Haha yes, I was actually practicing drift alignment.
Also I noticed that street lamps are gradually switched to LED lighting which seems to direct their light downwards. Not sure whether that will impact future astrophotography here.
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